Hi, I have returned to Lactation consulting after a break of a few years,
and am really enjoying all the new things  the world of mass communication
offers us!!
Someone asked about the issue of weight loss in the hospital.  Several
years ago when I was working in a small maternity hospital here in Tel
Aviv, Israel, I dealt with this issue. I managed to convince the staff to
put the BF babies on a three-hour schedule and informally I compared the
percentage of weight loss to those who had been on four-hour schedules.
The results were as you would expect.  Those babies who had been on a
four-hour schedule had lost from 10 to 15% of their birth weight, and those
on a three-hour schedule were losing 5 to 7%.  However, this schedule
created "too much extra work for the staff," and was all too quickly
stopped.  Don't even ask what happened when I suggested rooming in?  The
reaction was similar to what may have happened if I had suggested that
snakes be put in the mothers' rooms.  We all have a long way to go.
Esther Grunis, IBCLC, Tel Aviv